Take Back Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en! I hope you are having a spooky (but safe) time and not eating too many chocolates! Wait, is there such a thing as too many chocolates? What was I thinking? I must be...

Mad! 

Mad, I tell you...quite mad!

Interesting fact: did you know that hatters were in fact driven mad by the mercury they used to felt hats back in the day? True! I know because I read it on the interwebs (Wiki link), hee hee.

I will be linking up to Judith at "Style Crone"'s next Hat Attack!* coming this weekend! It was hard to choose, but really, if I'm the Mad Hatter, how appropriate is that?
*linking 'cause I love

My costume that I wore to work today was a reprise of the one I wore here (2nd outfit and many close-ups of the make-up and parts) a few weeks ago. The only change is that I wore an orange camisole so that I wasn't quite as boobalicious.

Complete with "Eat me" and "Drink me" teacup and saucer

One thing I will say about wearing a costume to work: it requires dedication! I wore this for close to 9 hours, and by the end of the day (much like last year), I was all, "Get this off me!"

Wearing a costume for a party also involves alcohol (at least, for me it does) which makes all the little things less irritating. This was also abominably hot and sweaty-making in my office, with all the layers.

However! It is an awesome costume (if I do say so myself) and I had a lot of fun wearing it. I have been grooving on the Take Back Hallowe'en* movement, which is discussed here*on Epbot* (what? You don't know Epbot? Tell me you at least know Cake Wrecks*!).

Take Back Hallowe'en is all about creating costumes from our imagination, not from buying them at a store. As I am already on board with Shopping Second Hand First*, this is a natural fit for me. While I don't fall into one of their categories (I'm technically cross-dressing here as the female Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland"), I like getting inspiration from all kinds of areas, whether a movie like my "The Birds" costume from last year or a book like this year. It's so much more fun when you use your imagination!
*linking because I love!

And...that's a lot of links and I shall step down off my little soapbox now.

I have disassembled my costume back into the things that live in my closet (jacket, skirts, boots, grey corset top, obi, scarf), and my jewelry box (pins, earrings), and the things that are for parties (hat, fascinator, leather gloves, black corset, butterfly), and things that go into the tickle-trunk of awesome (ribbon and curtain pulls, tassel, lace cuffs), and stowed away all my pins, needle-threaders and seam ripper.

So much more fun when combined!

For more close-ups of my costume, please visit my previous entry on it (here, again). And please do check out Ally's party over at "Shybiker"* to see all the other awesome and imaginative costumes out there in the blogosphere!
*of course, I love Ally - she's the best!

Tomorrow, I plan to break my company's dress code - because I am all about being sneaky that way! How does one break a dress code on a Casual Friday? Stay tuned...